To be legible is to be readable.

To be legible is to
be an entry in a ledger Ð one with a name, place,
origin, time, entry, exit, purpose, and perhaps a
number. To be legible is to be coded and
contained. Often, when asked an uncomfortable
question, or faced with an unsettling reality, the

01/05
rattled respondent ducks and dives with a
stammer, a mumble, a sweat, a scrawl, or a
nervous tic. The respondent may not be lying, but
neither may he be interested in offering a captive
legible truth either to the interrogator or to his
circumstances.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊAn insistence on legibility produces its own
shadow, the illegible. Between the bare-faced lie
and the naked truth lies the zone of illegibility Ð
Raqs Media Collective the only domain where the act of interpretation
retains a certain ontological and epistemic
Stammer, significance.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWe read each other for signs, not because
we are opaque, or necessarily wish for opacity,
Mumble, Sweat, but because our desires, fears, and experiences
still require the life-giving breath of translation.
Scrawl, and Tic The transparency that brooks no translation also
requires no engagement.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThe tree of life, and therefore of art, would
be barren were it not for the fruit of occasional
misunderstandings.

1. Stammer
Two performers, Mahmood Farooqui and Danish
Husain, tell stories in Delhi as part of an attempt
to revive a traditional narrative form called
Dastangoi (story-speech).1
e-flux journal #0 Ñ november 2008 Ê Raqs Media Collective

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊAmong the stories they tell are accounts of

people, incidents, places, and facts frozen as
notes and jottings in the archives related to the
Indian SubcontinentÕs partition in 1947. In telling
these stories, they attempt to work through what
Stammer, Mumble, Sweat, Scrawl, and Tic

it means to be poised on the hyphen between the

terms ÒIndianÓ and ÒMuslim,Ó in whichever order
the two are read, when they are read together.
Sometimes this exercise takes the form of a
meditation on the conflict between life and the
ledger.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThe partition of India was meant to give rise
to a new ÒhomelandÓ Ð Pakistan Ð for ÒMuslim-
Indians,Ó who, of course, would cease to be so
the moment they moved to Pakistan. The new
Indian state, however, maintained that India was
the only proper homeland for ÒIndian-Muslims,Ó
who were Indians as much as they were Muslim.
In this tug of war over how the ÒIndian-MuslimÓ
or the ÒMuslim-IndianÓ could be made legible as
present or future subjects of two states, some
strange things were bound to happen.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊA person who had been a ÒMuslim-IndianÓ
before partition ceased to be an ÒIndian-MuslimÓ
the moment he became a Pakistani. And if he
became a Pakistani, then he could no longer
easily revert to being an Indian. To the Indian

08.16.10 / 21:02:48 UTC

state, Pakistan was an enemy, and all Pakistanis, his passport had already told a new story.
who had once been Indians, were actual or ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊCaught between petitions, jottings, and
potential antagonists. files, Ghulam Ali tried to read himself Ð
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊOn the other hand, after a certain date, the sometimes as an Indian, at other times as a
state of Pakistan, the homeland of those who Pakistani. But all he could say with confidence
hitherto had been ÒMuslim-Indians,Ó was no was that he had learnt to play the Kettle Drum in

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longer willing to accept any more ÒIndian- the British Indian Army Band. Kettle Drumming is
MuslimÓ emigrants from India. They were not a legible nationality. You canÕt just rat-a-tat-
beginning to be seen as a burden, as outsiders, a-tat your way through two new warring nations
and at worst as potential fifth columnists from as if it were a parade. Not if you are an ordinary
India in the new Pakistan. decommissioned soldier with nothing to your
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThis meant that those ÒIndian-MuslimsÓ name but a quest for a missing relative. Your
who had crossed over to Pakistan but petitions may travel, but you stay where you are
subsequently wanted to return to India could not written into history. Over time, even the
do so, while those ÒMuslim-IndiansÓ who had inscription in the file, overwritten many times
stayed on in India, but subsequently wanted to over, becomes as illegible as the acts of travel
cross over to Pakistan could not do so either. that it sought to contain. Legibility, when it eats
India would not let the first kind return, and its own tail, digests itself into illegibility.
Pakistan would not let the second kind enter.
Both of these desires became obstacles to those 2. Mumble
who governed the two new states. The ÒIndian- In Ritwik GhatakÕs Jukti, Takko aar Gappo
MuslimÓ and the ÒMuslim-IndianÓ came unstuck (Arguments, Reasons, Stories), a Bengali film set
between the powers who claimed the terms at against the backdrop of the first wave of Maoist
either ends of the hyphens that joined them. rebellion in the India of the late sixties and early
Their lives, and the claims that their lives made seventies, an old man, Nachiketa, played by
on history, were no longer seen as valid. The Ghatak himself, falls in with a group of
legibility of the law that classified people as ÒundergroundÓ Maoist insurgents in the course
either ÒIndianÓ and ÒPakistaniÓ now produced its of his eccentric picaresque adventures.
own illegible shadow Ð of the movements of ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊHis conversations with one of his indulgent
people who did not quite fit into either category, hosts, which cover a large historical remit,
and who, by their actions and by the articulation inevitably end in his admission, ÒI am confused,
of their desires, refused to ÒfitÓ into either India young man, I do not understand anymore.Ó He
or Pakistan, but stayed on as the stubbornly travels with the band of rebels, and yet, it is they
e-flux journal #0 Ñ november 2008 Ê Raqs Media Collective

illegible marginalia of the unfolding of two grand who are all conformists in comparison to his
narratives of new nationhood. awkwardly exhibitionist display of ambiguity.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊFarooqui and HusainÕs performance, which Caught in the ÒcrossfireÓ between the certainties
takes off from the investigations of historians of the state and the insurgents, Nachiketa (with
like Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar, comes to a a name that packs in a throwback to Nachiketa,
Stammer, Mumble, Sweat, Scrawl, and Tic

head with the story of someone we like to think the death defying practitioner of the Òvia
of as the Òuncontainable man.Ó Here is his story.2 negativaÓ Ð neti, neti, neti/not this, not that, not
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThere was once an uncontainable man. Let the other Ð of the Katha Upanishad), is a
us call him Ghulam Ali. That is how he is named celebrant of the mumbled doubt.
in the files and the correspondence that ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊNachiketaÕs insistence on inhabiting his
surround his strange but unremarkable story. confusion has other ramifications as well. In
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊIn the aftermath of the Partition of India, in addition to its awkward evasion of definitive
1947, this man, like thousands of others, could articulation, it also outlines a position based on a
not offer a clear, concise reading of his self. He refusal to be an informant. The owning-up to not
had not yet learned to be legible to himself as a being able to ÒunderstandÓ is as much an
citizen of either nation. Neither India nor assertion of a stance of deliberate reticence as it
Pakistan could hold him in place. is a tacit admission of ignorance. Often, in the
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThis uncontainable man wanted to stay on course of cultural transactions, a demand is
in India, but went to look for a missing relative in placed on the artist, curator, and critic to be a
Pakistan. His decisions were sound; his timing model Òinterpreter.Ó This demand is usually
was awry. Straying to search for someone, and underwritten by the assumption that the place,
then staying to search for someone Ð falling sick, biography, history, predicament, relationship, or
tarrying, confusion Ð all this meant that in a few situation that the ÒinterpreterÓ is being asked to
monthsÕ time he became a Pakistani. People translate is available to him as a transparent
were still figuring out how to spell Pakistan, and template. Nachiketa, by holding on to his
how to tell it apart from India. Ghulam Ali read confusion, questions the imperative of
himself with a stammer. The book that became transparency.

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ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊNachiketaÕs prevarication offers neither devoted to the storage of ÒexperientialÓ data light
redemption nor rejection. Rather, it holds out up in response to stimuli pertaining to the scene
hesitant incomprehensibility as a reason to keep or particulars of a crime, the suspect is taken to
going. Nachiketa Òkeeps goingÓ until he is finally be someone who has actually participated in the
undone by the assurance of gunfire in one of unfolding of the events in question. The brain is
Indian cinemaÕs first depictions of the now taken to preserve within it a legible impression of

03/05
commonplace Òencounter,Ó a form of contact the crime, much as a roll of film contains an
between the state and its more recalcitrant emulsion on which a scene may be imprinted
subjects which takes place through the medium through the action of light.
of a well-placed bullet lodged in an insurgent ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThe question is: is a dream, an act of the
head. A doubting body is an uncomfortable imagination, a response to a murder in a film, an
sprawl of questions. A dead body is a legible ÒexperienceÓ or a ÒconceptÓ? If the life of the
statistic in a police ledger. The transformation of imagination is rendered indistinct from the life of
the doubting body into the dead body is another actions then all of us are criminals, or have been,
kind of translation. It happens far too often, and at least some of the time. We have all
though forensics is one way of looking at the experienced the fear and rush of violence, in
dead body, especially in search of well-writ dreams, in recollections, or through recounting.
answers, it has not as yet yielded its own ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWhat if we did not commit a murder, but
hermeneutic science, or the kind of obsessed about it instead? What if we went over,
interpretation that stays on the ball with the again and again, the real or imagined details of a
questions that continue to haunt the record, conspiracy in our minds? Would we then be
much like the confused ghost of a confused man. conspirators or witnesses, or both Ð in turns, and
all together?
3. Sweat ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWould it then make sense to say that if you
A judge in the western Indian city of Pune are not an eligible victim, you must be a legible
recently convicted a woman for murder based on perpetrator? What would it make better sense to
the results of a Brain Electrical Oscillations be?
Signature (BEOS) test.3 This technique,
developed by a Bangalore-based neuroscientist, 4. Scrawl
claims to act as an efficient instrument for In looking at traditional land deeds and
determining culpability in crime through brain documents that encode customary titles, one is
mapping.4 The accused, who is said to have struck by the scrawls that thicken the task of
poisoned her fiancŽ with arsenic at a local reading. The research of Solomon Benjamin, a
e-flux journal #0 Ñ november 2008 Ê Raqs Media Collective

McDonaldÕs, was subjected to an scholar of urbanism based in Bangalore, involves

electroencephalogram. Thirty-two electrodes looking at the changing ways of registering legal
were placed on her skull while she sat in silence and customary claims to land.5
and listened to a series of statements read out ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊBenjaminÕs work takes the form of a series
mainly in the first person, some of which were of digressions into the meanings of signatures
Stammer, Mumble, Sweat, Scrawl, and Tic

neutral, such as ÒThe Sky is BlueÓ while others and countersignatures. To him, the story of a
made assertions which could be connected to land deed or other such documents, is told by
the crime, such as ÒI bought arsenicÓ or ÒI went the marks and annotations that overlay each
to McDonaldÕs.Ó other on paper to form a palimpsest of claims Ð
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊUnlike other neural investigation and here reinforcing, there overruling exclusive rights
prognostic techniques used in forensic Ð erecting, dismantling, and shifting the
psychology, BEOS does not rely on an evaluation boundaries between enclosures. Claims touch
of skin texture (as in a lie detector) or brain claims, infect claims, mate, proliferate.
images (as in Narco Analysis) associated with the Relationships to land become both more and
making of ÒtrueÓ or ÒfalseÓ statements by the less than being simply about Òproperty.Ó The
suspect in response to a set of questions, often rights of ownership are read against the claims
fielded while the accused is made suggestible of custody. Usage, usufruct, usury, uxoriality,
through strong pharmacological intervention. estates, and estovers all shade off into
BEOS does not rely on the accused having discussions about different kinds of entitlement.
recourse to speech, but on what is supposed to Habits and habitation yield to each other, and the
be revealed by the colors of her silence. It thin fabric of legal legibility often buckles under
ÒmapsÓ what happens in the accused personÕs the overlay of ink on ink on ink on paper.
brain while she ÒlistensÓ rather than when she ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊJane Caplan, historian of information
speaks. This silent cartography of the brain processes and identification techniques, takes a
divides the cerebral cortex into areas close interest in the evolution of the signature. To
corresponding to ÒconceptsÓ and Òexperiences.Ó her, the signature is an Òequivocal artifact deeply
In this theory, should the area of the brain mired within the terrain of legibility/illegibility.Ó6

08.16.10 / 21:02:48 UTC

Citing historians who claimed that an illegible days. The nervous tics on the faces in the crowds
hand was seen as a mark of gentility in the 16th that gaze with rapt attention at the scrolling
century, Caplan points out that ÒlegibilityÓ and news of the dayÕs highs and lows on the
the penmanship that produced it was closely tied electronic murals that wrap themselves around
to what was once seen as the ÒvulgarÓ the glass facades of the citadels of finance are
commercial activity of accountancy. This view eloquent testimonies to the affective intensity of

04/05
reversed itself in 19th century Britain and its capital.
empire, when good handwriting came to be ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊIt is possible, some say, to read despair,
associated with gentility. skepticism, hope, and euphoria in the glyphs
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThe signature, however, remains an formed by these crests and troughs. If so, then
exception to the cult of legibility. Even now, legal news of investment is as sentimental as the
opinion customarily holds that a ÒnormalÓ chapters of a pulp romance. The promise of
signature is an ÒillegibleÓ signature, i.e., that romance and the hope of eventual recompense
illegibility is a defining feature of the signature, on risky bids are the eventual trophies for which
Òwhich is not a piece of writing intended to both speculators and sweethearts vie. Yet each
convey a meaning, but a graphic, symbol, or lover, and each stockbroker, is a prisoner of a
device.Ó7 private language. Every man (and woman) who
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊIllegibility, in other words, is the hallmark of has laid a wager on the possibility of a return in
individuality. Children learning to write their love or money has done so knowing that the
name legibly soon realize that growing up object of their attentions may not even hear, let
involves the transformation of a readable name alone care for, the intensity of their longing. How
into an illegible scrawl. The consistency of this many have squandered their dreams on Freddie
illegible scrawl through time then becomes the Mac and Fannie Mae, and to what little avail?
identifier of a well-formed adultÕs ability to ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊSentimental poets declaim that Òto love is
represent him or herself on paper. to lose.Ó Addicted market players see the losses
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊHow can the knots and scrawls of human of some as the opportunities for a win on the
relationships, especially as they get entangled Òrebound.Ó And so, victory and defeat, pursuit
over generations, be read in anything other than and being pursued, blur into each other such that
their illegibility? What does an ÒillegibleÓ reading it begins to be difficult to tell losses from gains.
amount to? Would hearing such a reading If the legibility of loss lies in recognizing the
amount to listening to the rustling glossolalia of state of being bereft, then it becomes equally
aging paper? In such situations of universally necessary to know that bereavement can render
diminished legibility, disputes over land would us speechless. Within silence lies another,
e-flux journal #0 Ñ november 2008 Ê Raqs Media Collective

often end in long, drawn-out negotiations that in keener illegibility. And who would dare edit the
their durability acted as tacit instruments of lexicon of a wordless language with a million
compromise. So someone owned, someone entries for only two sets of meanings: intangible
ploughed, someone grazed, someone camped hope and opaque despair?
and someone lived, and all of them quarreled and ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ
Stammer, Mumble, Sweat, Scrawl, and Tic

all felt that they were as much in the right as

they were in the wrong.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊToday, however, property claims are hard-
coded with digital signatures. Barcodes donÕt
scrawl into each other the way that inked
inscriptions could. A patch of land is no longer a
field of interpretation, guarded by a picket fence
with many gaps and holes. As land becomes
transacted on a global scale, and as traditional
claims and claimants are erased in neat
satellite-imaged cadastral records, information
Ð not habitation Ð becomes the key to property. A
right to land is no longer a dispute to be settled
by reading a layer of ink under another layer of
ink. It is instead a piece of information protected
by a firewall, amenable to entrance only on the
pronouncement of a password, and only legible
to its owner.

5. Tic
The jagged peaks of stock market fluctuations
are legible, apparently, to sharp punters on good

08.16.10 / 21:02:48 UTC

 Raqs Media Collective (Monica Narula, Jeebesh ÊÊÊÊÊÊ1
Bagchi, Shuddhabrata Sengupta) has been variously Dastangoi Blog
http://dastangoi.blogspot.co m/
described as artists, media practitioners, curators,
researchers, editors, and catalysts of cultural ÊÊÊÊÊÊ2
processes. Their work, which has been exhibited See Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali
Zamindar, The Long Partition and
widely in major international spaces and events, the Making of Modern South
locates them squarely along the intersections of Asia: Refugees, Boundaries,

05/05
contemporary art, historical inquiry, philosophical Histories (New York: Columbia
speculation, research and theory Ð often taking the University Press, 2007).
form of installations, online and offline media objects, ÊÊÊÊÊÊ3
performances and encounters. They live and work in Anand Giridharadas, ÒIndia's use
Delhi, based at Sarai, Centre for the Study of of brain scans in courts dismays
critics,Ó International Herald
Developing Societies, an initiative they co-founded in Tribune, September 15, 2008.
2000. They are members of the editorial collective of http://www.iht.com/articles/
the Sarai Reader series, and have curated "The Rest of 2008/09/15/asia/15brainscan.
Now" and co-curated "Scenarios" for Manifesta 7. php

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ4
Lawrence Liang, ÒÉ And Nothing
but the Truth, So Help Me
Science,Ó Sarai Reader 07:
Frontiers (2007): 100-110.
http://www.sarai.net/publica
tions/readers/07-frontiers

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ5
Solomon Benjamin, "Occupancy
Urbanism: Ten Theses", Frontier,
Sarai Reader 07, 2007
http://www.sarai.net/publica
tions/readers/07-frontiers

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ6
Sensor-Census-Censor,
Investigating Circuits of
Information, Registering
Changes of State, 2007
http://www.sarai.net/publica
tions/occasional/sensor-cens
us-censor

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ7
ibid.
e-flux journal #0 Ñ november 2008 Ê Raqs Media Collective
Stammer, Mumble, Sweat, Scrawl, and Tic

08.16.10 / 21:02:49 UTC